There's more to Life than Bread. . . (adapted from Rabbi Y. Goldman)
“Man does not live by bread alone”.
A famous line (it even figured prominently in an ad for a burger chain some years ago), but what does it mean?
These words come from this week's Torah reading and the phrase concludes, "rather, by the utterance of G‑d's mouth does man live." Literally, this verse teaches us that that it is ultimately G‑d who provides for our wellbeing.
However there is another layer of meaning to these words:
Man does not live by bread alone - meaning, the human spirit is such that we crave more than bread. Human beings are never satisfied with money or materialism alone. We inherently reach for a higher sense of purpose; man needs to feel that his or her actions make a difference.
They tell the story of a prisoner in a Russian labor camp whose job it was to turn a heavy wheel attached to a wall. For twenty-five years the prisoner worked at his backbreaking labor. He assumed that this wheel must be attached to a mill on the other side of the wall; perhaps he was milling grain, or pumping water that irrigated many fields. In his mind's eye he saw the plentiful crops and the sacks of milled grain feeding thousands of people.
After twenty-five years of hard labor, when he was about to be released, the prisoner asked to be shown the apparatus behind the prison wall. There was nothing there! The wheel was just a wheel — all his "work" had served no useful purpose. The man collapsed in a dead faint, absolutely devastated. His life's work had been in vain.
We have a deep-seated need to know that our life's work is purposeful, physically and spiritually.
Have you ever wondered why Judaism has something to say about every detail of our lives? Think about it for a moment, there is not one area – the way we eat, get dressed, go to sleep, walk, talk, etc. – that Judaism overlooks? Why?
This is because Judaism satiates our deep-seated need to bring purpose to every aspect of life. By following the detailed recipe of Jewish tradition as prescribed by the master-chef, G‑d Almighty, we transform a regular, every-day activity into a meaningful act. Try it!
Let’s do a mitzvah today!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Raleigh Resnick
